Masinissa Clothing owner’s details stolen by drug syndicate
A drug syndicate hijacked the business details of a Mosman boutique and used them to smuggle $100 million worth of drugs into Australia. Court reporter Brenden Hills reveals how the scam unravelled.
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A drug syndicate pretended to be an exclusive women’s boutique to ship $100 million worth of methamphetamine into Australia.
The syndicate stole the details of victim Holly Bouveng and her Mosman clothing store, Masinissa Clothing, including her name, the business address on Ave Rd and Australian Business Number and used them to smuggle in drugs disguised as “ladies jeans”.
They even set up a fake email account in Ms Bouveng’s name to import the drugs into Australia, which were worth as much as $100 million if sold on the street or $25 million if sold wholesale to smaller dealers.
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The details emerged in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday where one of the members of the drug syndicate, Hassan Kassir, had his jail term increased from a maximum of eight years to 10 years in prison.
Authorities were not able to establish why Ms Bouveng was targeted and her details were stolen, the court heard.
The Sunday Telegraph’s attempts to contact Ms Bouveng were unsuccessful.
According to court documents, the drug shipment of 15 boxes landed in Australia on June 16, 2016.
Inside 12 of the boxes were 210 bags containing 209kg of 79 per cent pure methamphetamine as well as a few pairs of jeans, the court heard.
Prior to the June 2016 shipment, there were six other shipments sent from Taiwan to Australia using Ms Bouveng’s details, but court documents said the contents were unknown.
Kassir worked on the Australian end of the operation and was an employee of freight forwarding company DHL.
The court heard he entered Ms Bouveng’s details into DHL’s system as an import customer on January 5, 2016.
By that stage, Ms Bouveng was no longer operating at the Mosman shop, having moved her operation to another premises.
“Ms Bouveng had never met the respondent,” Chief Justice Tom Bathurst told the court. “She had never imported goods from Taiwan and never had any dealings with DHL.”
On January 7, 2016, Kassir used a fake email address set up in Ms Bouveng’s name, purporting to be from the clothing shop, to send a message to DHL to arrange the importation.
In response, Kassir was told that to have freight imported and cleared for collection, he would need to send a Letter Of Authority or LOA.
The same day, Kassir emailed “an edited version of the template LOA, which included Masinissa Clothing’s details including the name Holly Bouveng and giving a street address, ABN, mobile number and email address”, the court heard.
Kassir even sent a follow-up email, which included a logo for Masinissa Clothing to be included on the LOA, the court heard.
Between 16 January 16 and May 11, 2016, DHL received six deliveries for Masinissa Clothing, none of which were the subject of the criminal charges.
Over that period, Kassir approached colleagues about the packages and told them he was interested because they were “for a friend”, while a person purporting to be Ms Bouveng emailed DHL asking about the packages because they were “urgent” and “overdue stock”, the court heard.
In February, another email to DHL purporting to be from Ms Bouveng said: “Please note it is urgent freight so if I could get it today would be great.”
The drug shipment arrived in Australia on June 16, 2016, and was intercepted by Australian Border Force before it could be sent to the DHL warehouse.
Five days later, a DHL employee emailed the fake “Holly” address and said the shipment had been seized by police, the court heard.
On July 2, Kassir disconnected his phone that was used to contact DHL and it has never been recovered by police.
The challenge for police was that they had no evidence to prove Kassir was aware of the quantity of methamphetamine being imported.
He was put under surveillance, his phones were tapped but no evidence could be found linking him to further involvement in the importation or with the kingpins who supplied the drugs.
Kassir pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the importation of a border controlled drug.
On May 17, 2019, Kassir was sentenced in the Sydney District Court to a maximum eight years in jail with a minimum term of five years and six months.
Prosecutors appealed on the grounds the sentence was too lenient and a three-judge panel increased it to a maximum 10 years on Wednesday.